Saved as by Fire! CHAPTER 24.
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During the whole of this time, scarcely a remark had been made by anyone except the judge and Dr. Gilbert; but all were attentive listeners; none more so than young Henry Pickering and Amy Granger. My attention had been drawn towards them from the first, and the impression soon came to me that the young man's attitude towards the question under discussion had not been altogether such as the maiden approved. But it was plain now, that Dr. Gilbert's evidence, so clearly stated, had made a deep impression on his mind. He turned to Amy, as the doctor closed his remarks, and spoke to her very earnestly for a few moments. The effect was striking. Her face lighted up gradually until it was as if a sunbeam had fallen over it, while her beautiful eyes became almost radiant.
"For one," said Mr. Stannard, the first to break the silence that followed, turning to Dr. Gilbert as he spoke, "I must express my thanks for the clear explanation you have given us of the physical effects of alcohol. We, the people, need instruction on this subject. It is because of our lack of reliable information here, that so many go on impairing health, and laying the foundation of incurable diseases. If this were all; if the use of a substance so destructive to the body did not lead, as you have just intimated, to other and more appalling disasters. Among these, you have referred to insanity. Ah! if there were nothing else, this would be bad enough. But among the evils that it inflicts on our race, insanity, I had almost said, among the lightest. Of its agency in making criminals, Judge Arbuckle is, perhaps, as well informed as any one present."
The judge, who had been sitting with his eyes bent to the floor, almost started at the mention of his name, his absence of thought had been so great.
"What were you saying?" he asked, glancing towards Mr. Stannard.
"Only that you were probably better informed than any one present, as to the direct agency of alcohol in making criminals."
"There is no disputing the fact," replied the judge, with much gravity of manner, "that a very large number of the crimes for which men are tried and punished, have their origin, or secondary exciting cause in liquor-drinking."
"Statistics," remarked Mr. Granger, "tell a sad story as to the crime — destitution, suffering and pauperism which spring from this one source. The figures are indeed startling. I have looked at the hundreds of poor wretched creatures who gathered nightly at our meeting on Broad Street, and read in their faces, the sad story of their fall and degradation; my thought has gone to the homes made desolate; to the broken-hearted wives and mothers; to the abused and neglected children, that must be counted in as a part of the ruininvolved in what I saw before me. At a single glance, I have taken in as many as from three to five hundred of these wretched beings, with faces and forms so marred and disfigured that it made my heart ache to look at them; and for every individual I saw before me, somewhere, way out of sight and observation, were from one to half a score of wronged and suffering ones, who, but for the debasement of these men, might have been living in comfort and happiness. This is the thought that intensifies our pity and stirs ourcompassion when we look at even a single one of these wrecks of humanity.
"But when we begin to aggregate these human disasters, the result becomes appalling. We take an isolated home. It is the dwelling-place of sweet contentment. But the demon of drink comes in, and beauty fades, and peace retires, and sorrow, and pain, and unutterable woe take up their abode in the desolate habitation; or it is thrown down and utterly destroyed. How sad we grow over a single case like this, when it comes clearly before us. What, then, is the fearful aggregate? Statistics place the great army of drunkards in this country at six hundred thousand! It may be more, it may be less. Do we place the average too great when we say, that, for every one of these — five people are hurt in some way — fathers, mothers, wives, children, sisters, brothers or dependents? Three million people are involved — in the debasement and ruin of these six hundred thousand! What an awful aggregate, when we comprehend just what this debasement and ruin means and involves! Then statistics tell us that, from two to three hundred thousand children are yearly deserted, or orphaned, and sent to poor-houses, or bequeathed to private and public charities, in consequence of alcoholism; to say nothing of the little ones who perish from neglect and cruelty. Of the crimes committed, our newspapers and our police, our courts and prison records make perpetual advertisement, until the awful facts become so familiar, that the public grows hardened and almost indifferent. In a single year, in the State of New York, according to one of the reports of the Prison Association, not less than from sixty to seventy thousand people, men, women and children, were committed to the jails of that commonwealth, and eighty-four percent of these criminals, according to the estimates of the prison-officials, were due either directly or indirectly to the use of intoxicating liquors! The estimates of leading temperance writers as to the number of men and women who are yearly sent to prison in consequence of using strong drink, give the figures at one hundred thousand; but taking the returns of New York as a basis of calculation, and they swell to more startling numbers.
"The mortality of drunkenness is another aspect of the case fearful to contemplate. Sixty thousand are said to die annually in this country from the direct effects of inebriety; and where epidemics attack a community — the intemperate, and those who use alcoholic drinks regularly, are the first to yield to their malign influences. A remarkable instance of this is given in a letter written to the Boston Medical Journal, in 1853, by Dr. Carnwright, of New Orleans. The yellow fever, he said, came down like a storm on the devoted city, sweeping off five thousand alcoholic men, before a single sober man was touched by the epidemic. A Liverpool coroner made public declaration, that gin caused him to hold annually a thousand more inquests than would otherwise have been the case; and he said, farther, that he had seen, since holding the office of coroner, so many murders by poison, by drowning, by hanging and by cutting the throat — in consequence of drinking ardent spirits, that he was astonished that the legislature did not interfere to stop the sale of intoxicating liquor. It was his belief, that from ten to fifteen thousand people died annually in that metropolis, from the effects of alcohol-drinking.
"Looking beyond the questions of health, mortality and personal suffering involved in the use of intoxicants — the loss to the whole people in material prosperity is something startling. If, as has been established over and over again by the testimony of judges, grand juries and prison-keepers, from sixty to eighty percent of the heavy cost of maintaining courts, prisons and almshouses, is due to the crime and pauperism engendered by drinking, we have in this item alone, a vast drain upon the productive industry of the country. What this drain is, may be seen from a single fact. In Ulster County, New York, a committee was appointed to ascertain from reliable sources, the percentage on every dollar of tax paid to the county, which was required for the support of her paupers, and the prosecution and maintenance of her criminals; and, after careful examination, it was announced, that on every dollar of tax paid, sixty-three cents was the penalty exacted from the people for permitting the liquor traffic to be carried on in that county.
"But this is only a single item. The loss in productive labor suffered through the voluntary or enforced idleness of six or seven hundred thousand drunken men, paupers and criminals, to say nothing of the reduced power of work and production which inevitably attends moderate drinking, as it is called, adds an additional drawback to the general prosperity.
"There is yet another view of this case. Hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain, instead of going to feed the people, are annually used for the production of beverages which injure the health of all who drink them, and create an army of paupers and criminals. The amount paid for these beverages by those who drink them, is from eight hundred, to a thousand million dollars every year, or more than the value of all the flour, cotton goods, boots and shoes, woolen goods, clothing, books and newspapers produced in the whole country.
"A government of the people, by the people, and for the people, can hardly be called, in all things, a wise government — so long as it fosters and protects, by legal enactment, and draws a part of its revenue, from a traffic like this, which offers no good to the people, but mars their industry, corrupts their politics, and sows crime, pauperism, disease and death broadcast over the land! Is it not time that the citizens of this great nation called a halt; and time that every man who holds in regard the well-being of his neighbor, and the happiness and safety of his children — should come out from among the friends of so monstrous an evil, and set himself resolutely to the work of its repression?"
"The work of repression is a very slow and halting work," came in the clear, calm voice of a woman, and I turned towards Mrs. Klare, who had been silent up to this time. Judge Arbuckle, who had been listening with a grave, judicial attention to Mr. Granger, almost startled at the sound of her voice, and looked at her with a lifting of his eyebrows, and awakened surprise on his countenance. "Its progress, if there is really any progress at all, except in one or two exceptional States," she went on, "is so slow as to be utterly disheartening. I depreciate none of the efforts which are now being made to restrict the traffic and warn the people against the use of a substance which yields no single benefit — but curses with unutterable woes, every one on whom its blight falls — they all have their measure of good — but, while we wait for the agencies of repression, thousands, and tens of thousands are perishing around us! Shall we stand off and see these wretched men and women so perish, while we seek to influence legislation, and wait for a new public sentiment that shall lessen the evil in some far-off time to come? Shall a man, whom an effort on my part might save, die at my door — and I be guiltless?"
"There are many agencies of reform and means of rescue in active operation, as you are well aware, Mrs. Klare," said Mr. Stannard. "Our inebriate asylums and reformatory homes are saving a large number of men.!
"For every man that is so saved, I thank God, and bless the agency that saved him," was answered. "But what impression can less than a score of such institutions, scattered here and there over the land, excellent as they are, make upon the six hundred thousand drunkards whom Mr. Granger has just told us about? Are these to be left to perish, while we are trying to establish more asylums for their treatment and cure? There must be quicker, readier and less costly means for more than four out of five of these six hundred thousand — or they are lost forever."
"You, and the noble women who are at work with you in the cause of reform and restoration, are giving us, I trust, a solution of this great problem."
"God is giving the solution," replied Mrs. Klare, in a low, subdued voice. "In our blindness we went to Him, and He showed us the way. We called upon Him in our weakness and our despair — and He heard and answered us."
Mrs. Klare spoke with a confidence of manner that brought a look of wonder to the face of Judge Arbuckle, and caused him to lean a little forward in his chair.
"You men may continue to fight this foe of alcoholism with carnal aids to warfare, if you will — but we have found in the Sword of the Spirit, the most effective weapon that we can use against him," Mrs. Klare continued, a soft smile just touching her lips, to show that she did not mean any discourtesy, by her form of speech.
"What do you mean by the Sword of the Spirit, madam?" asked the judge, as he leaned towards Mrs. Klare, and looked at her still curiously.
"Prayer and faith," she replied.
"Oh! I see," he returned, with a slight betrayal of amused incredulity in his voice. "Prayer and faith are used as a kind of exorcism by which the devil of drink is cast out."
"If you choose to put it in that form, judge," the lady answered, with a smile still lingering on her gentle lips.
"And you really believe, madam, that prayer will make a drunken man sober?"
"No, I do not believe anything of the kind."
"What then?" asked the judge.
"I believe that God will do it in answer to prayers."
"In answer to your prayer?"
"If," asked Mrs. Klare, "there lived in my neighborhood a man who had become miserably drunken; who wasted his earnings in liquor, and neglected and abused his wife and children; and I, pitying his state, and earnestly desiring to save him, should go to the Lord and present his case, and pray that His Holy Spirit might strike conviction to his soul, and give him not only to see the dreadful sin he was committing, but lead him to repentance; and suppose that, after I had so presented him to the Lord, for a single time, or for many times, he should repent, and turn from his evil course, and be gathered into the fold of Christ — what would you say?"
"Have you ever known such a case?" asked the judge.
"Yes; and not only one, but many, each, of course, with its peculiar aspects and incidents, but all quite as remarkable as the one I have given."
"There is something more in this, than appears on the surface," remarked the judge. "I do not believe that God was waiting for your prayers, before He would lead the man of whom you speak to repentance and reformation of life. What is your view of the case?"
"I know," replied Mrs. Klare, "that all things are promised to those who pray, believing; and I know, that after I had prayed, in the case I have instanced, and in many other such cases — God has brought conviction and repentance. Just how it was all done, I do not pretend to know. I am not so much interested in the philosophy of this salvation — as in the glorious fact. And I am not alone, Judge Arbuckle, in my experiences. Hundreds of pious women in this city, and thousands more all over the land, are saving poor drunkards by scores and hundreds, through the power of faith and prayer. If you could be with us in our daily meetings, and see the men whom we are rescuing, and hear them speak of the power of Divine grace in setting them free from the slavery of alcohol, your heart would be so stirred within you, that you would accept the fact of the value of prayer, and leave the philosophy to be discussed and settled hereafter."
"If you can lead a man to pray for himself, and he then gains, through prayer and intercession, the power to resist and control his appetite — I can see a clear relation between cause and effect," said the judge. "He comes voluntarily into a new attitude towards the Lord, who can now give him grace and strength, because he is ready to receive it. But how the prayer in which he has no part can have any avail, passes my comprehension."
"We who are in the midst of this great Gospel temperance work, are so crowded with surprising instances of the effect of our prayers for others — even for men and women whom we have not seen, whose names often we do not know, nor sometimes their places of abode — that doubt is no longer possible," Mrs. Klare replied. "And when, at our daily afternoon prayer and experience meetings, we make requests of God for those who ask for our intercession in their behalf, we do it in full confidence that we shall be heard and answered, though nothing of the result should, in many cases, ever come to our knowledge."
The deep calmness of a settled conviction was seen in the countenance of Mrs. Klare, as she spoke.
"We know so little of the spiritual world which lies in and around us," said Mr. Stannard, at this point of the conversation, "and of the laws which govern therein, that we must not be surprised if some of its phenomena are found difficult of explanation. We cannot, knowing as we do, that God is infinite and essential love, and that His compassion is so great, that our compassion in its tenderest movements bears no ratio to it whatever, believe that He withholds His saving power from any sin-sick and perishing soul — until we ask Him to be gracious. But rather that, in our prayers for and thought of the individual for whom we pray, spiritual forces or influences, whose action is above the region of our knowledge, are set in motion, as the atmospheres are set in motion by the vibrations we call sound, and so thought and feeling be stirred and acted upon, and he for whom we pray, is led to turn to the Lord, whose ears are always open to His children's cry for help, and whose hands are always stretched out to save."
"Be that as it may," remarked Mrs. Klare, "I am not wise enough to say whether Mr. Stannard's view is right or wrong; but this I know, wonderful results follow the prayers we offer to God, and men whom we are asked to pray for today — drunken, debased and evil men; husbands, sons, brothers, for whom our prayers are asked by wives, mothers and sisters — often, within a day or a week, present themselves at our meetings, or at other places where Gospel meetings are held, and sign the pledge, and give their hearts to Christ. And so long as we women see these results, we should continue to pray mightily to God."
A few moments of thoughtful silence, and then Mr. Stannard said, addressing Mrs. Klare: "I know all about what you are doing in this city, and the great success of your work; and I see in the organization of a kindred work in every city, town and neighborhood all over our country, the largest and most effective agency of temperance reform ever known in our liquor-cursed land. My only fear is, that you may depend so completely on prayer, and faith, and Divine grace, in the work of saving drunkards — that you will fail to use the natural means of reform and restoration which are as essential to permanent cure, as the others."
"A woman's instincts are swift and true, Mr. Stannard," was the reply. "We know that a man, with hunger gnawing at his stomach, is in a poor condition for effective praying; that if he is homeless and idle, he is especially exposed to temptation, and the feeble spiritual life he may have found, will be almost sure of extinguishment in its foul breath. We know that health must come back to the body, and its orderly life be restored, if we would keep down the old craving desire, and give to spiritual forces an unobstructed sphere of action. While we believe in prayer, and the grace of God, and a change of heart — we believe also in the saving power of natural and physical health, and order as well. The man to be truly saved, must be saved inside and outside. But, with God's grace in his heart, he will find the work of keeping his outer life in order a far easier task than if he tried to do it in his own strength. And herein it is that our work is meeting with such large success. We point the poor, exhausted inebriate, who comes to us in his rags and defilements — to Him who is able to save, and urge him to cast himself upon His love and mercy. To make new resolves and new pledges; but with this difference from the old resolves and pledges, that now prayer is added to the new resolutions, and spiritual strength asked humbly and trustingly from God. We take him to the church door, and invite him to enter and cast in his lot with Christian people; helping him to form a new external, as well as a new internal life. He is thus removed from old, debasing associations, and brought into fellowship with pious people, who take him by the hand, and if he has any ability for Christian work, find him something to do in the Sunday-school, in the prayer-meetings, in the temperance work of his neighborhood, or in anything else that is good and useful."
"And this is what you mean by Gospel temperance," said Judge Arbuckle, his fine face lighting up beautifully.
"It is one of its phases," answered Mrs. Klare.
"And the best and most promising phase, I'll warrant you," returned the judge, with rising enthusiasm. "Why this is church work! I'm a good churchman, you see, madam; and believe, with our excellent bishop, that all saving reforms should originate in, and be fostered and carried on by, the church."
"What if the church, in its organized form, neglects, or wholly ignores temperance work — even Gospel temperance work — what then? Shall we wait for the church and let the poor drunkard perish, because she neglects her duty?"
"God forbid!" responded the judge. "There is no monopoly in the work of lifting up fallen humanity."
"Nor in soul-saving," said Mr. Stannard. "But this drift which the subject has taken, brings us face to face with the church and its great responsibilities. It has something more to do than the provision of a Sunday service for the people. The preaching of the Gospel is one thing, and the doing of Gospel work another. The building of stately church edifices, with costly finish and exquisite ornamentation, into which so much of the financial means of a congregation are absorbed, as to leave it too often with a sense of poverty and an excuse for drawing the purse-strings more closely — when suffering or destitute humanity stretches forth its pleading hands, may be all well enough; but worship in a less expensive and ostentatious building, and a more Christ-like concern for the sick and perishing souls that lie helpless, it may be, within the sound of its choir and organ, would, I think, be far better and more acceptable to God."
"You do not approve, then, of the splendid churches and grand cathedrals which, in all Christian countries, have been erected to the honor of God and dedicated to His worship?" said Judge Arbuckle.
"Not if they are built and maintained at the cost of human souls."
"I am not sure that I reach your meaning, Mr. Stannard."
"Let me give an illustration. We will take the case of a congregation which has built for itself a splendid marble or stone church at a cost of one, or two, or three hundred thousand dollars, into which the people come twice every Sunday to hear the service and preaching, and once or twice a week for evening prayers or a lecture. This elegant structure is anornament to the neighborhood, and the people who have built it feel proud of their fine edifice, and not a few of them contrast it, a little depreciatively, it may be, with the achievements of certain sister churches in the same line, and take credit to themselves for having thrown these just a trifle into shadow.
"Now, as to the spiritual value of all this — and no good is gained in any church work unless it is a spiritual good — there may be serious doubts. Has the creation of a grand temple for the worship of God, wrought in the minds of those by whom it was erected, that state of receptive humility which is the dwelling-place of Him who says, 'I am meek and lowly of heart?' Are they humble, more teachable, more self-denying, more self-forgetting, more given to good works than before? What if, like a wise corporation, one of these congregations had invested in their land, building and required church machinery, just one-half of the sum they had in possession, and reserved the other half for working capital? Don't you see how differently the case would stand?
"Here is a church that cost two hundred thousand dollars. Now, if it had cost but one hundred thousand — and a building just as large and just as comfortable could have been erected for that sum — all the excess is but imposing display and ornamentation — that congregation could have established and maintained, with the other one hundred thousand dollars, a reformatory home for inebriates, like the Franklin Home of our city, and been the means of saving from fifty to a hundred fallen men every year. Or, it could have placed in the hands of its pious women, who, like Mrs. Klare and her sister workers in this Gospel temperance movement, which has already wrought such marvelous results, the money required to give healthy food, and proper clothing, and safer and better surroundings to the poor, nerveless, appetite-cursed men they are seeking to save. I instance but these; there are many other ways in which the reserved working capital of this church might be used for the good of souls.
"Think! How would it be if our blessed Lord were to stand some day in the midst of that congregation? Would they hear from His lips, as His eyes took in the richness and grandeur of the temple they had built to His honor, and then, penetrating its stately walls, went searching among the poor, desolate homes, and wretched hovels, and dens of vice and crime which lay in the very shadow of its beauty, and saw His lost sheep perishing there, with none to pity or to succor — would they hear from his lips the words, 'Well done?' I fear not."
"You have struck the key-note of the great question that lies at our door today," said Mrs. Klare, speaking with a rising earnestness of manner. "Are the churches, established for the salvation of souls, to remain content with one or two Sunday services, and a week-night prayer-meeting or lecture, maintained, in many cases, at an expense of from five to fifty thousand dollars a year? Can you find in any mere secular calling, so large an investment with such meager returns? The theory seems to be that the work of the church, as a body of Christian men and women, is limited to Sunday, and may be intermitted for six days."
"Let us be careful that we are not unjust," Mr. Stannard replied. "I stated my case strongly, in order to illustrate my views. Many of our churches are active in good works, and are doing much for the spiritually destitute. They have their mission schools, and visiting committees, and laborers among the poor; but with most of them, their usefulness is restricted for lack of means. It takes so much to maintain Sunday worship, that but little is left for anything else!"
"To seek and to save that which was lost. It was for this that Christ came." Mrs. Klare spoke in a low, earnest voice. "Ah! if only our churches all over the land would give themselves to this seeking and saving of the lost — of those who have fallen so low that, to common eyes, their case is hopeless. If only they would go out into the wilderness, like the Good Shepherd, seeking for and bringing back the lost sheep. These six hundred thousand drunkards, of whom over a thousand die every week; what hope for them if the church comes not to their rescue? — for the church alone can lead them to the sure refuge of Christ. The world knows Him not. Only in a few cases is a human hand strong enough to save. If the larger number are not led to take hold upon Christ, they must perish in their sin and degradation!
"Think what joy there would be in Heaven, if all the churches in the land, singly, or in union with near sister churches, were to establish Gospel temperance meetings, and draw into them these six hundred thousand men and women — or as many of them as felt their slavery and wretchedness, and wished to escape therefrom. The very thought makes my heart stir within me."
The evening had worn away, the hours passing with little heed from any of us, until it was time to separate. The judge had risen to his feet, and Mrs. Arbuckle and Mrs. Klare were moving from the parlor in order to make ready for going away, when Mr. Granger, who had been silent for most of the time, said, in a voice that at once gave him an attentive audience: "I would like, before we part, to say one or two things that have come crowding into my mind this evening. All good work is from the Lord. Every effort, of whatever kind, perfect or imperfect, which has for its end the saving of men from evils and debauchery, has in it a heavenly power and the approval of God; and we must, therefore, be careful that, while we magnify the means of salvation, which to us seem most effective, we do not depreciate or throw hindrances in the way of those who labor in different fields, and with methods different from our own. This work of saving the people from the curse of drink, in which we are all so deeply interested, has many aspects, because men differ not only in personal character and temperament, but in their external conditions and the ways of thinking and habits of life, which grow out of these conditions. The influences that will powerfully affect one, may have little weight with another. Our panacea, in which we have such an abounding faith, may fail in many cases where another remedy would work a cure; while cases of failure under a diverse treatment from ours — may find a quick restoration on coming into our hands. Let us, then, be watchful over ourselves in this matter, and be readier to give a 'God speed' to methods different, and, it may be, less efficient than our own — than to depreciate them by comparison, or hurt their influences by direct condemnation.
"Whatever tends, in even the smallest degree, to abate this curse, must be recognized as good work. It may be through restrictive laws, or binding pledges, or social organization, or appeals to the people by the press and the platform, or the opening of cheap coffee rooms. It may be in Christian work and prayer, and direct spiritual help from God through these appointed means, in which I have the strongest faith. It may be in the establishment of inebriate asylums and reformatory homes, where, while seeking to cure by medical, sanitary, moral and religious means, the pathology of drunkenness is carefully studied, and the skill and wisdom of the medical profession brought to the examination and cure of one of the most fearful diseases which man, by self-indulgence, has brought upon himself; involving in disorder, as it does, his physical, moral and spiritual nature. Tolerance of views, and harmony of action, are what we need in this work. If I think my methods are best, let me pursue them with all zeal and confidence, doing what good I can; only let me be careful not to depreciate my brother's methods, of the scope and value of which I may know far less than I imagine."
"Thank you, Mr. Granger!" came with a hearty utterance from the lips of Mrs. Klare, who had turned back into the parlor, from which she was passing when our host began his remarks. "You have said the right thing in the right way. The temptation to magnify our own particular work, because its fruit is so near our hands, is very great. But, apart from this; are not some ways of doing a thing, better than other ways? In the work of salvation, is not a Divine Hand more certain to save than a human hand?"
I saw a light break suddenly from within into Mr. Granger's face.
"If we can lead the man, in whom inebriation has almost, if not entirely, destroyed the will-power, to Him who is able to cure him of all diseases, if he will accept the means of cure," continued Mrs. Klare, "may we not hope to do more and better for him in this way, than in any other way?"
"Yes, yes, I believe it, and I know it," replied Mr. Granger. "When all other means fail, this may be held as sure; for God's strength, if we take it and rest upon it, never fails."
"But, after all," spoke out Judge Arbuckle, "is not the work of warning and prevention, better than the work of cure? Of all that I have heard this evening, and much of it has been deeply interesting, nothing has impressed me like the evidence brought by Dr. Gilbert against alcohol. It may be only imagination," and he smiled a little dubiously as he said it; "but I've recognized in my body, more than half a dozen symptoms of its deleterious effects since he described its action on the tissues, nerves and organs of the body." He stretched his arms upwards, then drew them down again slowly, pressed one hand against his forehead, and then held it against his right side.
"The fact is," going on, after a few moments of reflective silence, "I have an unpleasant impression that I'm not quite as sound as I thought myself. This torpidity of liver is something, I'm afraid, more serious than I had supposed. And my head," giving it a shake, "isn't as clear as it ought to be. There's often a heavy, confused feeling about it, which I don't like." As he stepped out to move across the room, I saw him limp. "One of my knee-catchers again." The judge made a slight grimace.
"A diminished supply of sinovial fluid," remarked Dr. Gilbert.
"One of the effects of old age," said the judge.
"Precipitated, most likely, by the alcohol in your wine and brandy," returned the doctor. "You know that, of all substances taken into the body, none absorbs water like alcohol, and that its first action on the membranes is to rob them of as much of this fluid as it has the power to appropriate. That more or less torpor and stiffness of the joints and limbs should come in consequence of the continued use of this substance, is not at all surprising; nor that the liver, heart and brain, and some of the more important nerve centers, should suffer from disturbances growing out of unhealthy structural changes."
"The thing stands to reason," answered the judge. "What I wish to say, is, that as prevention is better than cure, how more effectually can the cause of temperance be served, than by the most thorough dissemination of the truth in regard to the action of alcoholic drinks in deteriorating the body and laying the foundation for painful and too often fatal diseases? Why, sir, do you think that, if I had known as much about this matter when I was twenty-one years of age, as I do now, that I would have joined the great army of moderate drinkers? No, sir! It was because I believed, with thousands of others, that these enticing beverages were good and healthful, when not taken in excess, that I used them. Now I see that there is a double peril. That, besides the risk of becoming their slave, he who uses them is surely laying the foundation for troublesome, painful, and, often, fatal diseases!"
"It is in consequence of the physical deteriorations wrought by alcohol in the stomach and brain," said the doctor, "that appetite increases, and the will so often loses power over it. For this reason, no one is safe who drinks at all; for a double disease — moral, as well as physical — is almost sure to be the result; and this is the hardest to cure of all diseases."
"And yet the easiest," spoke out Mrs. Klare, in her clear, sweet voice, "if one will only come to the Great Physician, and be healed by the touch of His hand."
The judge let his gaze rest, for a moment or two, on the speaker's calm face and slightly upturned eyes, and then, as he withdrew them, said, gravely: "Prevention is best, my friends. Don't forget the boys and the young men, while you are trying to save the unhappy fallen. Prevention is in the line of true order. And, remember, that it will cost less of time, effort and money to keep ten from falling — than to lift up and restore one who is down. Don't forget to provide safeguards for the ninety-nine, while you are going after the one lost sheep."
"I think," said Dr. Gilbert, as he laid his hand upon Judge Arbuckle's arm, "that we may count you as upon our side of this great question."
"I should not wonder if it were so," replied the judge, "for I regard the argument, so far as presented by you, as complete; and, until I am satisfied that you are in error, I shall take no more risks. Too much of comfort, and use and happiness depend on good health — to put it lightly in jeopardy. My wine may be very pleasant and exhilarating, but if there is really poison in the cup, I must, as a wise and prudent man, let it pass untasted, or acknowledge myself the slave of an appetite which will have indulgence at any cost."
"And you, Henry?" It was the voice of Mr. Granger. He spoke with a quiet cheerfulness that concealed any suspense or concern, if either existed. Young Pickering, who was bending towards Miss Granger, and talking to her, in low tones, turned his handsome face towards the speaker. "On which side of this question shall we count you?"
"On the right side, of course," said Amy, not waiting for her lover's reply, a happy smile rippling over her face as she spoke. His answer, I did not hear; but that it was entirely satisfactory, I had the assurance a few weeks later, when the fact of their engagement became known to the friends of the family.
And here our story must end, if so meager a plot and so light a thread of narrative, can be called a story. Whatever interest has been felt in the characters, must give place now to the profounder convictions we have sought to awaken. In the curse and cure of drunkenness lie problems, to the solution of which we must bring neither prejudice, nor passion, nor partisan feeling — but the truth, if we can but find it. And in all questions that concern man's moral and spiritual life, as well as his natural and physical condition, we shall be more apt to find the truth, if we consider the action of moral and spiritual laws, in their connection with the effects which lie lower and more on the plane of common observation, than if we made light of them, or ignored them altogether.
There is one fundamental doctrine of Christianity, without which all the rest must go for nothing. We have it from the mouth of the Lord Himself: "You must be born again." Differ as we may about the means of attaining this new spiritual birth, all Christians agree that it involves an inner change through the gift, or grace, or agency of the Spirit of God, by which man's evil nature, with all of its depraved and debasing appetites, is either taken wholly away, or removed from the center to the circumference of his life, and there held in complete subjection. There is no condition of depravity or wickedness, from which a man may not be saved in this new birth; and there is no power in all Hell, strong enough to bear him back into his old evil life, if he uses the new spiritual strength that has been born in him from above.
On this fundamental law of spiritual life, all Christian believers stand; and it is being more and more widely accepted as the one on which we can most surely depend in our efforts to save men from the curse of drink. It is on this conviction that what is known as the Gospel temperance movement is based; a movement in which the old, tireless workers in the great cause of reform, find new hope and encouragement. Heretofore the churches have held themselves, in too many instances, aloof from active participation in the cause of temperance, leaving it to be dealt with by legal enactment, or moral persuasion. But now they are beginning to see that this work is really their work, and that to them has been given the special means for its prosecution. In most, if not all, of our inebriate asylums and homes of reformation, the value of spiritual aid is fully and practically recognized; and in some of the larger institutions, they have their chaplain as well as their physicians; and we are very sure that where the physician of the body and the physician of the soul unite in their efforts to cure a patient who is sick of an infirmity which has exhausted his body and enslaved his will — his case is far more hopeful than if he were left in the care of either alone.
And now, what need to write another sentence? We cannot make clearer, by any new illustrations, this leading thought of our story — that in coming to God through sincere repentance and earnest prayer, refraining, at the same time, from alcohol and all other evils of life, as sins, there lies for the inebriate, a road to reformation, in which he can walk safely, and which will bear him farther and farther from danger with every step he takes therein. Some have fallen so low — alas, for the number! — that every way except this has been closed up; but all will find it the safest, the surest, and the easiest, by which to reach an abiding self-control.
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